DR. JACK R. VAN ENS, AUTHOR

CREATIVE GROWTH INC.

9745 W. 77 TH DRIVE

ARVADA, CO 80005

TEL. 303-420-7416

E-mail: vanensfam@juno.com

Web site: www.thelivinghistory.com

WAS OUR NATION CHRISTIAN AT ITS BIRTH?

Why did the Constitution's framers skip in the text mentioning in major ways God and Jesus Christ? An irritated evangelical Presbyterian minister asked Alexander Hamilton to defend why the Constitution lacks "suitable recognition" of the Almighty. Hamilton's retort sounds smart-alecky. "I declare we forgot it!" he flippantly blurted out.

Some Christians are miffed today because the Constitution sidesteps attributing divine inspiration to our nation's chief code of laws. That the Constitution avoids God-talk doesn't jibe with how some evangelical Christians re-write our nation's formative years. They tell us the founding fathers "recognized a Christian God" and established the nation on biblical principles.

The 2004 Texas GOP platform unequivocally declared, "The United States of America is a Christian nation" founded "on fundamental Judeo-Christian principles based on the Holy Bible."

Texas Republicans sounded testy when defending God's imprint on the founding documents. They rejected "the efforts of courts and secular activists who seek to remove and deny such a rich heritage from our public lives," going so far as to argue that the doctrine of separation of church and state is a "myth." It must be rejected in favor of restoring the founders' original biblical intent.

What does this Christian intent consist of? Newt Gingrich and some congressional members praised Texan David Barton, who majored in math at Oral Roberts University without getting an earned degree in American history. What Barton espouses appeals to many Christians. "The First Amendment never intended to separate Christian principles from government," Barton teaches, noting how the phrase "separation of church and state" never appears in the Constitution. Jefferson coined it in his 1801 letter to persecuted Baptists in Danbury, Connecticut.

Barton defines the founders "original intent" as prohibiting "the establishment of a single national denomination," but it should not be used to remove Christianity from the center of public life.

Barton and his evangelical cohorts stumble badly in re-writing their version of our nation's religious origins. Why isn't God given a major role in the Constitution? Theframers intentionally designed it as a secular document, not a religious treatise about how a Republic governs. Aside from the formulaic "in the Year of our Lord 1787," the only other cursory reference to God occurs in the religious anti-discrimination clause referring to candidates who run for public office. Article VI stipulates, "No religious test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public trust under the United States."

Even titles adopted for our public officials lack biblical overtones. Ancient Hebrews regarded God as king of the universe. "Our Lord is great and His power is great," they chanted in worship. "There's no limit to His understanding" ( Psalm 147:5) Biblical kings and priests wielded political and religious power. Our nation's founders rejected these titles. Relying on political titles used in ancient Rome, they referred to our leaders as "President, Senate, and Congress."

A decade ago, David Barton and I, portraying Thomas Jefferson in 18 th century costume, clashed over how Christian our nation's origins were. Jefferson is Barton's formidable political adversary who can't be won over in the campaign to Christianize America's birth.

Jefferson feared our newborn Republic might splinter if armed camps fought over divine dogma. Religious wars would crush democratic sprouts emerging from colonial soil. Although Jefferson admired ethics grounded in the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount, he had little patience for the David Bartons of his era. They bowed before a national religious scaffold where the triune God was seated as national Deity. Such devotees used the Bible as our country's rule for faith and practice.

Jefferson sparred in verbal fisticuffs with Patrick Henry over Christianity's #1 ranking as the national faith. Henry didn't want to jettison our country's religious moorings. He feared citizens would drowned in a sea of atheism if cast adrift from biblical morality. Grudgingly, Henry agreed that national preference for a Christian denomination might lead to persecution of other traditions. He pressed for federal legislation to fund "teachers of the Christian religion." This phrase encompassed Protestant Christian ministers, not Roman Catholic priests or Jewish rabbis.

In 1779, Jefferson revised Virginia law in which state funds supported Anglican parishes. Government paid a minister's salary. Drafting a bill for religious freedom, Jefferson stuck to a non-negotiable conviction: "Almighty God hath created the mind free." If the state paid clergy and funded Christian denominations, these fiscal pressures would coerce citizens into subscribing to doctrines of the funded churches.

Jefferson defended the very unpopular belief that a strict separation of church and state must prevail for the health of our Republic. If private faith received government approval, religious persecution might erupt. No longer would citizens' minds be free to choose or reject brands of Christianity.